Ball'n chain? Is that what I embody?
by Moniquita2
Summary: Warden Cousland is Queen to our Alistair, who has made the infamous comment of Ball'n Chain. They married out of love, not convenience. A topic that seriously needed to be adressed. Same warden as "Remnants of the past", but you do not need to read it to understand it... but to understand a reference? Yup. Oneshot.


**Author's note: Ok, guys, so you know how King Alistair makes a comment about the Ball'n Chain in DA2? It has, I am not lying, bothered me intensely. I could not handle the idea of anything but a happy marriage for those two. So, finally, I addressed it.**

"Now if you excuse me, I must return to the ball'n chain," informed the king, 'causing the nobles in the room to laugh long enough so that he could make his escape without any of them regaining their composure to pull him right back in. He crossed the threshold that took to the stairs, stairs that took to the royal alcove. Threshold that was considered a breach of protocol to cross if you weren't leader nor maid. Threshold that separated him from court nobles with their false grins and false well wishes. And half way up he came face to face to the one he loved, a woman now, standing proud, but very much the same, if her short brown hair served for any indication, brown hair that served as a symbol for her, of advancement, of continuation, of leaving the past behind. He can recall with clarity how long she let it grow in the time where fighting was done, how she confided in him for the first time how it reminded her of the life she had before it even began. "It was one of their wishes," she said, "how can I to them not grant it?" He remembers answering that their highest wish was truly for her to be happy, no? After all, that wish was for her to marry high and, how better could she have? She playfully had slapped him at that.

And now, stood the beautiful figure he mostly associated with love and openness, freedom and understanding, with a look that betrayed no feelings what-so-ever. He knew better than to be fooled, though, he knew what must brim at the rim of her glass was fury. For disgust and fear, sadness and happiness, those he was well trusted with. But anger, when centered on his persona, was cold and invoiced.

It did not detract from her beauty, though.

"Ball'n chain?" whispered the silhouette, now formed from the light that penetrated the well poised window at the top of his sight to fall in rays around her figure. "Is that what I embody? You may, often times, evade seriousness in your words, but there always peeks a hidden truth. Have through all this months, years I been sightless?" It demanded, its speech becoming hoarse, but strong. "How could I have thought myself a comfort, when really I am no more than part of the prison? It is reasonable, the idea, now that I come to its presence, for it was I the jailer who dragged-" A whimper intruded in the overly energetic line she was culminating though a climax. Encircling arms evolved into comfort and warmth as her impeccable expression twisted to show its true nature.

"My Love," He said, since long having learned any other endearment was not as well received, "you seem to have forgotten that the peeking truth you speak of, likes to be ironic."

"Nevertheless, it is truth. Your dreams take you far from here, from this, to adventurous lands-"

"But at the end, my destiny was no-where but here. Without you, those lands I dream of would not exist."

"You're more than capable enough-"

"Even if I was, which, my lady, I truly doubt, I would still be within this castle's walls with no taste of joy nor happiness." With this, he closed the topic with a sealing kiss that was anything but chaste, to her arguing lips.

From this day on, much old and new guiltiness and insecurities faded to be stomped down on and forgotten.

The King, in public and in private, in and out of her presence, repeated those words which had caused such discomfort, to either enjoy the shows of embarrassment and half willed hot anger from his beloved, to subside his nostalgia, and longing for her, or to simply be reminded of that which had always made her so special and important to him, that force that has unfailingly always pulled him to her, between all the other things that he could not help but adore.

Her passion.

 **Author's note: So, you see, stupid me? It did not have to mean something bad, and un-romantic, you idiot!**

 **Ok, already berated myself! :D Please comment. I am so sorry if it seems, to you, forced or overly formal, the way I wrote it. For some reason, with DA fanfics that happens to me. I can't seem to write normally or to the point.**

 **Love you, really, it is great to have your support.**


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